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North Hobart, Tasmania 7002

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Blog

Read Women’s Health Tasmania’s blogs for up-to-date information on current health issues.

Period Undies for the People!

Meet Ari and Ella. They are two of nearly 150 Undies Warriors in the Hobart City Council area.

Ari and Ella give us the low down of why they wanted to participate in The Undies Project and what they love about reusable period undies.

Image of packs of undies ready to send. The label on the package says "Thank you. You're saving the world one pair of undies at a time.

A bloody, often painful secret

“If you swim in the ocean with your period, you will attract sharks.”

“Girls can hold in their period if they choose to, like pee.”

“Your period is the tears of an empty womb.”

“There are balloons floating inside you full of blood.”

“Periods are blue in colour!”

“Never talk about your period at work, especially in front of male colleagues!”

Women talking

This is what Tasmanian women told us about homelessness

by Lucy Shannon,

Did you know?

Homelessness, and indeed being at the pointy end of the housing crisis in Tassie, has huge impacts on women’s mental health. 

Woman sitting in the back of a car with bags and boxes.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder – you’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of it!

by Lucy Shannon,

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a cyclical, hormone-based mood disorder. It’s linked to the menstrual cycle, but it’s more – often a lot more – than just feeling a bit sad or irritable before your period comes.

What is it?

Image: Woman holding hands to head in pain

What happened to the Pap Smear?

by Lucy Shannon,

There’s been a significant change to the way we screen for cervical cancer in Australia. It’s more accurate and we’ll need to do the test less often.

Since December 2017, the Pap Smear has been replaced with the Cervical Screening Test. It is an exciting development for a few reasons and alongside the vaccine for HPV could set us on the path to eliminate cervical cancer in Australia.

Doctors check list of tests required with a red tick next to Pap Smear

Public hospitals should provide women’s health services

by Kelly Madden,

Abortion is legal in Tasmania but accessing the service, particularly a surgical abortion, can be a problem.  

A tired woman sitting, looking at phone with a suitcase beside her.

Now is not the time to limit people’s access to telehealth services

by Jo Flanagan,

Recent decisions by the Australian Government have potentially negative consequences for women, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Here’s how. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Government acted quickly to broaden the Medicare Benefits Schedule around telehealth services, allowing GPs and other health professionals to use Medicare item numbers for new patients.

Woman accessing online telehealth services on a computer.

Health, Poverty and the Corona Supplement

by Lucy Shannon,

The Federal Government is moving to change the JobSeeker payment from $550 to $250 a fortnight. This supplement should not be cut back.

Before this supplement, the payment for a single, unemployed person with no dependents was $565.70 per fortnight – far below the poverty line.

Image: Money

Telehealth – virtually impossible?

by Rachel Andrew,

It has long been said that telehealth is a great way of getting our health needs met, especially in rural communities. But let’s face it, our health care professionals didn’t use it and we didn’t like the thought of it. Then COVID happened.

Photo of Rachel Andrew

The Impact of Coming Out of Lockdown

by Jo Flanagan,

We’re living through an extraordinary social experiment. Over the last couple of months up to one third of the world’s population has been in lockdown or quarantine. THAT is a story to tell our grandchildren. (‘YES NANNA! I was there, remember?’)

Woman taking time for self-care